


What do you believe in?

by GinevraJ



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Jicheol, M/M, One Shot, Prompt Fic, jihoon is a statue, seungcheol is his savior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 08:39:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18847516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinevraJ/pseuds/GinevraJ
Summary: There is a legend that if his soulmate touches his hand he will come back to life.





	What do you believe in?

**Author's Note:**

> this one-shot is based on [this prompt.](https://www.instagram.com/p/BxFZheHFNTX/). I hope you like it! feedback is appreciated :)

Seungcheol smiled after taking the picture and lowered his phone to see if it wasn’t blurry. Mingyu appeared beside him to look at the picture.

“You should take one too.” Mingyu said satisfied after taking his photo.

“It’s kind of dumb, don’t you think? Like taking a picture pushing the tower of Pisa, it’s overdone.”

“But it’s fun!”

“There’s too many people, let’s just leave.” Seungcheol placed his phone on his pocket and turned around to start walking, but Mingyu stopped him.

“Come on, we’re here, might as well take a picture. You love the statue, why don’t you want to take a picture with it?”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and looked at the crowd. The statue stood tall between everyone and Mingyu was right, he actually really liked that statue, but who didn’t? He wasn’t expecting that many people to be there, so he was happy with just seeing it. He didn’t want to take the same picture that everyone was taking and he thought the statue was pretty on its own.

“Ok, I’ll take a picture of it, but not with me, I’m tired of seeing the same picture.”

“Yeah but there’s a reason, you can’t blame them.” Mingyu said with a smile.

Seungcheol laughed.

“Do you really think someone believes that bullshit?”

“I don’t think so, but it’s nice to think that way.”

“It’s a legend Mingyu.”

“I know, but it’s cute.”

Seungcheol smiled and looked at the statue, waiting for the perfect moment where no one was holding its hand to take the picture. They were on vacation and the whole point was to have fun, so he didn’t mind staying there for a couple of minutes more so he could take his own picture of the statue. Everyone was taking pictures with it because it was famous for its legend. Apparently centuries ago people believed that the statue would come alive if his soulmate held his hand. So everyone wanted to take a picture holding his hand. Seungcheol didn’t understand how the museum could allow that, it was too old to be touched like that, and two guards at its sides weren’t much help. It would be a matter of time for the museum to stop allowing people to touch it, preserving the art was sometimes more important than attracting tourists. Honestly, Seungcheol just wanted to see it, he had studied it in high school in art class and at the moment he thought it was very pretty, and now he could finally see it with his own eyes.

It wasn’t that big, a boy standed tall on its pedestal, wrapped only with a sheet, reminiscent of the greeks when in reality the statue was made in the 14th century. He standed on his tiptoes with an arm extended up and the other, on his side, the one that everyone would grab. Seungcheol actually laughed the first time he heard that legend, it was obvious the artist had a model pose for him, but he guessed everyone could lie so their art became famous.

He perked up when he saw that no one was holding its hand and just when he was about to take the picture he felt a hand take his phone away and a light push.

“Come on, go take a picture.” Mingyu rushed him while pushing him again so he could take the picture finally.

Seungcheol rolled his eyes and looked around, there was a crowd around the statue, as always, but everyone was looking at their phones, either preparing the camera or looking at the picture they just took. He decided it wasn’t such a bad idea and got near the statue.

Holding the hand of stone was a weird feeling, he truly felt like he could break it any moment, and when he finally held it he wondered how it didn’t break before. He moved his eyes away from the statue and looked at Mingyu, who was standing a few feet away from him, about to take the picture.

But before he could even smile for the picture he felt tightness in his hand and when he raised his head he felt something falling. Seungcheol reacted before he could even think about what was happening and grabbed the falling boy in his arms.

His heart started to beat fast when he noticed the boy between his arms, opening his eyes slowly. He snapped his head quickly so he could see the pedestal, now empty.

Seungcheol looked around and he noticed how everyone went completely silent and stopped looking at their phones to stare at him like he had grown a second head. And at that point, he was surprised he didn’t.

The boy was still in his arms, waking up slowly and looking at him with his black and tiny eyes. There was a moment where he could feel everyone hold their breaths, hell broke loose when the boy finally spoke. His voice sounded so strained and tired, Seungcheol was sure he wouldn’t have heard him if it wasn’t because of the silence.

Unfortunately, the boy didn’t speak in any language Seungcheol knew, so he didn’t understand what he said. But he was quick to react when he saw everyone stepping closer to get a good look at him, he backed out and got near the wall to protect the boy from curious hands, everyone was being too harsh. They just wanted to touch him to see if he was real.

When Seungcheol noticed the boy looked scared he placed him on the floor carefully, but he still held him so he wouldn’t fall. He was much taller than the boy so when he put himself before him he made sure no one would reach him.

A couple of minutes later the crowd of tourists cleared thanks to the guards, it looked like every guard on the building came to appease the angry crowd of tourist. Because apparently a lot of people were mad that Seungcheol was denying their right to touch him or something.

Two of the guards approached Seungcheol and told him to hand in the boy, but before Seungcheol could even respond to that they tried to grab the boy. The boy was smart enough to let go of the guard and grab Seungcheol’s jacket so he could hide behind him again.

Everyone looked at the situation with disbelief, no one seemed to understand what was going on. But Seungcheol knew better than to let the boy go when that museum had let people touch him for centuries.

No one said anything because no one really knew what to say. The only one that spoke was the boy, but he did it again in a language that Seungcheol didn’t understand, so no one answered. He looked confused and scared, and Seungcheol made sure no one got near him again.

But the guards moved to one side when someone came. The tourists were moved and he couldn’t see Mingyu anymore, the guards were quick to put boundaries to where tourists could stand to watch the situation. Seungcheol felt nervous with all of those stares on him, but he couldn’t even begin to think what the boy must’ve felt like.

Seungcheol looked at the people approaching them, they looked like the higher-ups of the museum. They started speaking as soon as they got near the two of them.

“I understand this is confusing, but we have to take him.”

“I don’t think so.” Seungcheol shook his head and felt how the boy tightened his grip on his arm.

One of the more younger ones stepped up and spoke in a very gentle tone.

“You can come with us, but we have to take him out of here before anyone does something to him. We want to keep him safe.”

Seungcheol thought about it for a moment and before he could do anything he looked at the boy, he hoped he could understand his expression because he really needed to trust him.

“Alright.”

When he noticed the boy holding onto the sheet that covered his body, he decided to take off his jacket and put it over his shoulders before he took his hand and guided him through the crowd. The guards didn’t give the tourists time to get a good look at the former statue and they swarmed at their sides to take them to wherever those men were taking them. Seungcheol looked for Mingyu in the crowd but he couldn’t see him anywhere. He decided to just concentrate on what was in front of him, he would look for Mingyu later.

They got into an elevator and before he could think about anything else he found himself in a room full of suited men, discussing what they should do. Seungcheol didn’t really pay attention because they were speaking in very fast English and the boy who was still clutching his arm was more interesting.

Everyone kept silent when one of the men asked, it was the same one who asked Seungcheol kindly to give in.

“Please leave the room, I will deal with this.”

Everyone seemed to agree even though he was younger than all of them. When everybody left the room the man looked at both of them with a kind smile.

“Well, I’m sure this s very shocking to you.” the man said looking at Seungcheol.

“Yeah.”

“My name’s Joshua, I’m the owner of the museum.”

“Owner?”

“My father was the owner, he’s no longer alive so… I’m the owner now.”

“Were you aware that this could happen?”

“I was. Unfortunately, I couldn’t change the rules before it happened, clearly.”

“Where am I?” the boy suddenly asked in English.

“You speak English?”

“Yes, of course, I do.” the boy said, or at least that’s what Seungcheol understood, his English sounded a little bit outdated.

“In what were you speaking earlier?”

“I’m guessing it was Latin.” Joshua answered for him, the boy just nodded.

“What is going on?” Seungcheol asked, getting a little bit stressed by now.

“I’m sure you are aware of the legend.”

“It’s just a legend.”

“It’s not!” the boy exclaimed.

Seungcheol looked at him surprised.

“Well yeah, clearly it isn’t. But how did you know?” he asked Joshua.

“There were some signs that told us that the statue was very… Peculiar. No one could pinpoint the exact stone that was used for the statue, the artist never really confirmed that he made that statue… A lot of questions without answers. But I’m sure you can answer them.” He asked looking at the boy “The first one being your name.”

“My name is Jihoon.” He answered calmly, Seungcheol looked at him with curiosity in his eyes.

“What happened to you?”

“I apologize on behalf of my English, I am not very good at it.”

“What’s your first language.”

“Korean.”

“You can speak Korean.”

“He’ll speak in Middle Korean.” Seungcheol intervened in Korean, he guessed Joshua could speak it since he told Jihoon to use that language. “Do you know how to speak Middle Korean?”

“We’ll figure it out.” Joshua said with a smile.

“I was supposed to just pose for him.” Jihoon started speaking. “He was going to paint me. We were in Italy, my father is a merchant, so I always travelled, that’s why I know many languages.”

“And what happened.”

“The painter, he was my lover. A few days prior to the day that I was going to pose for him I told him I was leaving with my father to go to the West Indies, he was heartbroken. He talked to a pagan, she practised witchcraft. The day that I got to his house I was greeted by her, I was told she was her grandma, she was too old to be alive and I did not trust her. I was right. Just when he got me on the pedestal her eyes became dark and she started to explain my future. In the fifth century after my death, I would be saved by the hand of my soulmate.”

Seungcheol and Joshua looked at each other, both of them stood silent and didn’t know what to do.

“Are you okay?” Seungcheol asked finally.

“Yes, I was saved. Has it been five centuries?” Seungcheol smiled at his innocence.

“A little bit over that but yeah.”

“Yes, it’s been a long time.” Joshua started to speak Jihoon looked at him “People don’t believe in magic or legends, you were never supposed to wake up, you were just a statue.”

“What does that mean? What do you plan on doing with him?” Seungcheol asked frowning.

“Me? Whatever he wants. The people on the other side of that door? I don’t know what they’re capable of.”

“What do you want?” Seungcheol asked looking at Jihoon, he took a moment to answer.

“I’ve had five centuries to think, and even though it felt like a dream, or perhaps a nightmare, I have gotten used to the idea of losing my previous life. Your people won’t accept that, they will ask questions of my time. I do not want to explain it to them. I just want to live this life, I have a second opportunity.”

“That’s not going to be a problem, I’ve thought about this for a lot of years. We’ll say all of this was just a performance, and you’re just a paid actor, so you are free to leave.”

“What about the missing statue?” Seungcheol asked confused.

“There was a robbery.” Joshua said calmly as if it was the truth “I will tell them and then be back to arrange everything with you two.”

“Arrange what?”

“Plans for the future, he needs a life, I have to give him one. Will you help me?” Seungcheol thought about it for a moment and then looked at Jihoon.

“Of course.” He answered without taking his eyes off him.

“Perfect. I’ll be back soon.” Joshua said walking to the door.

“Oh, by the way, my friend is still out there, he has my phone. Will you bring him here? His name is Mingyu.”

“Alright.” Joshua answered before leaving the room.

There was a moment of silence between them, Jihoon was the first one to talk.

“I don’t believe in soulmates.” Seungcheol felt his heart sink when he heard that “I don’t think he did either, that’s why he condemned me. He didn’t think I could be saved.”

“What do you believe in now?”

“You.” Jihoon answered without hesitation.

Seungcheol opened his mouth but he couldn’t find the words to answer that. Before he could do or say anything Jihoon stepped forward, closing the space between them. He placed his hands in his chest and leaned closer. Seungcheol didn’t think a statue that woke up a few minutes ago could kiss like that. He also didn’t think that the statue would wake up at all, but he was wrong both times.

He looked at Jihoon’s eyes when the kiss ended, even though he didn’t want it to end.

“Will you show me your world?” Jihoon whispered close to him, Seungcehol didn’t wait and mumbled his answer without thinking twice about it.

“Yes.”  


End file.
